Azerbaijan detains suspect spying for Armenia
By Vugar Khalilov
Azerbaijan’s State Security Service (SSS) has detained a suspect engaged in anti-Azerbaijan collaboration with Armenia, the service reported on March 16.
An Azerbaijani citizen, Mammadov Emil (41), was detained as part of the initiated criminal case, the report added.
Grounds for suspicion have been established as a result of the State Security Service's investigation into Mammadov's secret cooperation with Armenian special services on the territory of a third country in exchange for financial interest in order to aid them in carrying out duties that threaten Azerbaijan's sovereignty, territorial integrity, state security, and defense capabilities, the service said.
Furthermore, substantial suspicions were established that he had been instructed to collect information that could be used against state security, to act in accordance with the given instructions, and to comply with the confidentiality and conspiracy requirements with the Armenian special services.
Mammadov was charged with treason under Azerbaijani Criminal Code Article 274 and arrested under a court ruling. The investigation into the case is currently underway.
The State Security Service maintains comprehensive counter-intelligence measures to detect and prevent threats to Azerbaijan's national security interests as well as foreign special services' intelligence-disruptive activities, the service said.
Azerbaijan and Armenia resumed their second war on September 27, 2020, when Armenia began firing on Azerbaijani civilians and military positions. A trilateral cease-fire agreement signed by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders put an end to the war on November 10.
The Azerbaijani army declared victory over the Armenian forces. The agreement required Armenia to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijani territory that it had occupied since the early 1990s.
In the war unleashed by Armenia, Azerbaijan's Ganja, Barda, Yevlakh, Beylagan, Tartar, Gabala, Goranboy, Aghjabadi, Khizi and other cities and regions, fairly far from the war zone, came under Armenia's missile and artillery fire.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have confirmed that Armenia used prohibited cluster bombs and missiles in its attacks on Azerbaijani cities.
As a result, 100 Azerbaijani civilians, including 12 children and 27 women, were killed. There were 454 people injured, including 35 children. One hundred and eighty-one children lost one parent, five children lost both parents, and one family died. In total, 12,292 residential and non-residential structures, as well as 288 vehicles, were damaged.
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